Our lives are a reflection of our beliefs. Every decision we make, path we choose, thought and feeling, tie back to what we believe to be true, whether this is a conscious effort or not. When we feel agitated or conflicted, its most often because we are chafing against beliefs we didn’t know we had.

In my transformation adventure, it is just this feeling that led me to each opportunity to un-become what I’m not. Sometimes we don’t realize what we believe until it bumps up against what we think we believe, or what we want to believe. Yeah, this can get a bit messy…and embarrassing. But these are the unexpected twists and turns that make for an exciting adventure! Personally, I not only learned that I had unknown and/or incongruent beliefs about myself, but about the world around me.

I will certainly pull these out to share over time. For now, the important belief under scrutiny is that my identity and livelihood come from my employer. Not true, for me or for you. This is not to undervalue or undercut employee loyalty—I still believe in that. It is, however, a nuanced approach to putting what is good, right, and true, above all other things and people. The metaphor in my upcoming book series—the elephant in the room—is born and bred when we feel or see something incongruent with what we know and expect in the workplace and believe we have no place, right, or reason to buck the status quo and bring it to light. When this happens, we all live with the agitated and conflicted feelings while a piece of organizational truth gets trapped in plain sight, and individual as well as organizational growth is thwarted, if not arrested. My transformation adventure began when I realized that my identify and livelihood come from my whole life and career of choices. Each decision, as I make it, models what I believe.

Check your beliefs. Are your actions aligned with what you truly believe? If not, transform them! I’m right by your side.